University plans new pounds 10m library

Oxford University yesterday unveiled plans for a new pounds 10m library to bring under one roof its collections in classics, archaeology, Egyptology and art history.

The Sackler Library, proposed as the first stage of a new centre for humanities next to the Ashmolean Museum, will be financed with a gift from the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation and matching funds from the university. The building, designed as a rotunda in a classical style, would accommodate 12,000 metres of books on the cultures of Greece, Rome, the near East and Asia, currently scattered round other university libraries. Lucy Ward